Kyungah Ham’s sculptures, videos and embroidered works delve into the realm of the socio-political – questioning the labor, politics, nationhood, social identity and freedom of information in her native Korea. She explores her nation’s history as a provocateur, subtly building layers of meaning with each step in her process to kindle an enduring political discourse. Her embroidered works embody an approach initiated by Ham in 2008. Here, she collects information available in South Korea – ranging from images of Western abstract paintings to South Korean slang – and, through an intermediary, sends them as a blueprint to be embroidered in North Korea. Through the works, she extends the offer of authorship to the embroiderers, as they must occasionally alter the works due to censorship. On the surface, the works are luminous and poetic, but the real material lies in the process of information and communication within.
She received her BFA from the Seoul National University and MFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York. Upcoming exhibition: carlier | gebauer, Madrid. She has participated in exhibitions in South Korea and internationally, including at the Kunstmuseum Bonn; Kunsthalle Düsseldorf; Charlottenborg Exhibition Hall, Copenhagen, Denmark; and the Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Vienna, Austria. Her work can be found in numerous public collections, among them, Victoria & Albert Museum; Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul; MMCA, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea; and the Seoul Museum of Art.
Selected Works
Kyungah Ham
Big and pretty eye drops vitamin A, detail From SMS Series 04, 2017 / 2018
North Korean hand embroidery, silk threads on cotton, middle man, secret code, bribe, anxiety, cencorship, idealogy, wooden frame
65 × 51 cm
Kyungah Ham
Composition / Persuasive Mr. K’s crude humour with swimming Glucosamine like a snake, 2017 / 2018
North Korean hand embroidery, silk threads on cotton, middle man, secret code, bribe, anxiety, cencorship, idealogy, wooden frame
2 parts, 111 × 109 cm
Kyungah Ham
Floating mysterious nicergoline, detail from SMS series 03, 2017 / 2018
North Korean hand embroidery, silk threads on cotton, middle man, secret code, bribe, anxiety, censorship, ideology, wooden frame
55 × 75 cm
Kyungah Ham
Needling Whisper, Needle Country / SMS Series in Camouflage / Big Smile R 02-01-01, 2015
North Korean hand embroidery, silk threads on cotton, middle man, smuggling, bribe, censorship, anxiety, tension, ideology, wooden frame, approx. 1000hrs/1person
148 × 145 cm
Kyungah Ham
Needling Whisper, Needle Country/ SMS Series in Camouflage / Are you lonely, too? C 01-01-04, 2014 / 2015
North Korean Hand Embroidery, silk threads on cotton, middle man, anxiety, censorship, wooden frame, approx. 1000 hrs/ 1 person
146 × 146 cm
Kyungah Ham
What you see is the unseen / Chandeliers for Five Cities BK 03-05, 2016 / 2017
North Korean Hand Embroidery, silk threads on cotton, middle man, anxiety, censorship, ideology, wooden frame, appox. 2200 hrs/2persons
245 × 180 cm
Kyungah Ham
Needling Whisper, Needle Country/ SMS Series in Camouflage / Thou, If you are like me C 01-01-02, 2014 / 2015
North Korean Hand Embroidery, silk threads on cotton, middle man, anxiety censorship, wooden frame, approx. 1000 hrs/1 person
146 × 145 cm
Kyungah Ham
What you see is the unseen / Chandeliers for Five Cities BR 04-04, 2016
North Korean hand embroidery, silk threads on cotton, middleman, anxiety, censorship, ideology, wooden frame, approx. 2200hrs/2persons
255 × 184 cm
Kyungah Ham
What you see is the unseen / Chandeliers for Five Cities DSR 02-D-02-L, 2015 / 2016
North Korean hand embroidery, silk threads on cotton, middle man, tension, anxiety, censorship, ideology, wooden frame, approx. 1200hrs/1person
115 × 170 cm
